St. James parishioners asked to take dollar bill, turn it into act of generosity

Times Photo illustrationParishoners at St. James Catholic Church was given one of these dollars at Thanksgiving Day Mass with the instruction: help someone else with it.

A dollar might not go too far these days, but at St. James Catholic Church one little greenback can mean a whole lot of generosity.

The church, 710 Columbus Ave., passed the collection basket at its Thanksgiving Day Mass, but instead of asking for the usual tithing, each person was instructed to take a dollar out of the basket.

A note stapled to each bill said this: "This dollar is pure gift ... like the gift of life itself from God. As a recipient of such generosity what can you do for someone else?"

And in a pay-it-forward style plan, parishioners were asked to find a way to help someone else with the dollar they had been given.

Later on during the same Mass, the regular basket was passed taking up the church's annual donation for the St. Vincent de Paul Society. But parishioners were instructed not to put their dollar back in the basket - they were to come up with a more creative use for it.

Some did.

An altar boy reportedly went out right after Mass and gave his dollar to a homeless person he saw on the street.

Other dollars found their way into the buckets of Salvation Army bell-ringers.

Some grew to be more than just a dollar, with their recipients adding something to it before giving it away.

Parishioner Tom Herek, Bay City's fire marshal, added a few bucks to his and bought a case of canned goods he took to the Salvation Army at 401 10th St.

Herek said that everything is "scary" this year, reminding him of stories of the Great Depression he's heard from his parents.

"It's made you reflect just a little bit and I find myself doing things this year that I've never done before," Herek said.

Louise Krease lives in a local senior high rise center. Every year, Krease, who has seven adult children, makes a donation to a charity in their names instead of buying them gifts.

This year she is filling a cart on wheels, which she said is handy for anyone who has to walk to the store, with some things that have been given to her that she doesn't need: Toothbrushes from her dentist, socks that don't fit, corn chips she didn't eat. She's "regifting" the unopened items to the Good Samaritan Rescue Mission, 713 Ninth St. - cart and all - along with a monetary donation.

"I'm sure the Good Samaritan Mission will find a person who needs the cart, and they will find a use for all the items in the cart," Krease said.

And Krease is tossing her St. James dollar bill - with message intact - into the cart.

Maybe whoever gets it will pass it on, she said.

"That's what I'm hoping."

The idea to give money away came from a parishioner, said Ann Roznowski, chair of the liturgy committee. That same parishioner, who wants to remain anonymous, also funded the idea, giving the church 300 $1 bills to pass out.

The committee had been trying to think of a unique way to demonstrate generosity to its church-goers. In the past the church has given out mini loaves of bread, symbolic of the loaves of bread given out by Jesus to feed the multitudes. But this year it wanted to do something different.

"The dollar was a gift, just like the gift of life," Roznowski said. "We wanted to see what people could do with their dollars."

The idea was that the dollar, when given away, would increase like Jesus' loaves, creating generosity not just in its givers, but in its receivers.

"It was to basically say, 'Folks, life is a gift - give it away,'" said the Rev. Bob DeLand, pastor at St. James. "It was that simple. It was just an attempt really to allow people more gratitude."